Mobile phones can utilize access data to obtain access to a resource or a location. For example, a mobile phone may include data which is passed to an access device to allow the user of the mobile phone to access a room in a building. In another example, the mobile phone may have access data such as account data which may allow the user of the mobile phone to access an account to obtain a good.
In many cases, a resource provider may provide a consumer with access data that can be embedded on a physical access device, such as a physical card, a physical key, or a physical RFID tag. In some instances, the resource provider may also provision the mobile phone with the access data. For example, a building operator system or a transit system may provision a mobile phone with data that allows a user of the mobile phone to access a building or access a turnstile. In another example, a bank may provision the mobile phone with access data that allows the user of the mobile phone to access an account at the bank.
In instances where the mobile phone may be provisioned with the access data, a user can choose to have a mobile application and a virtual access device (e.g., a virtual payment device) provisioned onto the mobile device. Typically, the virtual access device is associated with a physical access device. In some instances, when the physical access device is renewed, any corresponding virtual access devices may also need to be renewed in order to remain usable.
This routine of renewing virtual access credentials for mobile devices whenever corresponding physical access devices are renewed poses several problems. For example, if the user has deleted the mobile application or has switched to a different mobile device, renewing the virtual access device may fail. A provisioning system may retry provisioning the renewed virtual access device several times before aborting. This can cause ineffective use of limited processing power. If virtual access devices are renewed in batch, this effect can compound to cause a significant load and potentially system failure. The systems of the resource providers can crash due to peak load during which too many renewal requests have failed and entered into a systematic retry process (e.g., due to users changing phones).
Without addressing these dormant access devices, the system (e.g., an issuer) may become overloaded from processing an overwhelmingly large number of re-provisioning attempts. There is a need to reduce the number of unnecessary renewals to minimize system overloading and to minimize delays on renewing those virtual access devices that need to be renewed.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems of minimizing system overload and infrastructure failures. Embodiments of the invention address this and other problems, individually and collectively.